Category: 2004

Melbourne people are good – 25th November 2004

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

tote hotel, mebourne with lung upc, seedy three, deep where all drown

the weather has been kind in melbourne and today is about 30 degrees and we’re eating breakfast in the backyard before a quick check out of the city with some cd shopping, coffee, mailing, coffee, trams and coffee.

we figure out how to squeeze all the gear and all the band in the van and a dumbass parking inspector decides we need a ticket as we unload. the evening and night seems to timewarp as we either wait for things to happen and then everything happens too fast.

we miss soundcheck because we’re eating some nice indian food and before we know it lung upc are up and on stage playing some nice droney psyche with big riffs.

seedy three rock like cowboy motherfuckers though be careful not to call them that, for your mom’s sake.

limited express hit the stage and rock out in their usual way – it’s hard to gauge the audience reaction as i’m videoing them but everyone seems enthusiastic during the breaks.

around song five jj discovers the wonder of technical problems and the usual active express is stuck at the station as things get sorted out. it gives yukari a chance to interact with the audience at least. things get rolling again but another song later and jj gives it away while yukari and koji noisily end the set – short, sweet and fucked up.

despite the problems and kinda subdued audience reaction many people come up later and buy cd’s, chat to the band and we all ask them to come and see ‘special show time’ again and promise no problems.

apparently this is the first time ever they’ve had any problems. we’ll sort out the gear in the morning and make sure it’s all ok – and also make sure to get a soundcheck from now on!

kudos to the guy who turned up late and missed the set but bought a cd anyway.

oh yeah – before i forget, deep where all drown finished off the night with some really good hard assed in your face rock – check them out!

koji – “melbourne is a very stylish city – melbourne people are good – kawaii”
jj – “i’m surprised – there’s a nice music scene. many customers grow up to be musicians”
yukari – “i’m sorry that i couldn’t give everybody a good gig, but so happy people came even though they have to work tomorrow”

Off to Melbourne – 24th November 2004

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

got up at what seemed a reasonable time but it was a crazy run down to the airport, all squeezed into the car.

everything went smoothly though and a few hours later we arrived at robert’s (grey daturas) house – we checked out all the promo stuff which is really great and jj started listening to robert’s cd collection.

after some dinner and beers a few of us went to the revolver club/bar where we chuckled at the oi! band playing before going through to the back where more beers were consumed and various photo opportunities arose with members of jet and apparently jon saffran was there too.

Ripper, mate! – 23rd November 2004

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

after some morning rain things brightened up while visiting the koala park, where the guys got to see many strange australian animals.

spent the rest of the day mad dashing around the city for quick visits to various eateries and photo ops at the opera house.

finally, we kicked back with some fine thai food and much joking about koji’s potential sexual performance with gaijin girls!

koji – ” i was very moved by the beauty of the opera house. thai food was ‘fucking ripper, mate’ and koala is cute”

jj – “the thai food was excellent – in japan people go to thai restaurants to drink and i don’t drink much so i don’t have much chance to try thai food”

yukari – “when we first arrived we were so busy but today we got to see many things – opera house, clothes shops, supermarket (to buy tim tams and lamingtons) – and i can feel ‘this is australia'”

“Sorry about bad English” – 22nd November 2004

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

2ser interview – sightseeing – 2rrr interview

had to get up early today and make a mad dash down to the 2ser studios to record an interview for wednesday overdrive – everything went really well thanks to ben, host of the show – looking forward to hearing it sometime in the future (we won’t be here on wednesday to hear it go to air).

while in the studio the weather turned cool and windy so limited express (has gone?) did some souvenir shopping before we headed off to bondi to contemplate the possibility of swimming. unfortunately, it was way too cold to tempt them into some pretty good surfing conditions even though it was t-shirt weather for me.

toured around to south head and watson’s bay where i think we finally started to wind down after the weekend’s shows.

we dropped into newtown to oporto for these junk food freaks and met up with pure evil again in paint it black much to yukari’s delight!

soon after we were in the 2rrr studio with the wonderful micko to talk and play cool japanese and tenzenmen music for an hour – koji was particularly interested to talk more this time.

finally home to rest and pizza and beer.

yukari – “many things….but #1 is micko’s interview because koji talked much and i could play a lot of japanese music and introduce it to australia”

koji – “the highlight was going to bondi beach – i enjoyed the sightseeing and i talked on the radio in english, i had lots of fun but sorry about bad english”

jj – “today’s highlight is now – relaxing”

Good Day! – 21st November 2004

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good day! green square hotel with terrapin, triangle, vincent over the sink, faux furs, kiosk

after getting to sleep at 4.30am it was difficult to get up at midday and we were running a bit late but still managed to be first to arrive at the show only half an hour before it started!

luckily everyone turned up soon and kiosk blasted out 15 minutes of superb sonic chaos to a small but enthralled audience.

faux furs were up next – they play a cool minimal fall-type music that made me happy – again quite chaotic and fun. i think these young bands are great – they seem to have a complete disregard for any normal rock conventions and the attitude of ‘fuck it if you don’t like it’. and then…

vincent over the sink! boy, these guys were amazing! and just their 3rd show – this two-piece take structure from ruins, sounds from indie types yummy fur and quirk out like the minutemen – bands which they’ve never even heard of!

triangle psyched us all out with distortion-drenched rhythmics and swirling acid patterns.

at this stage i went in search of the missing yukari to find her curled up asleep under a table at the side of the stage – how she slept through the noise i don’t know – but she seems to fall asleep anywhere (as did jj and koji at various stages of the day) – samurai-koala is becoming an ever more appropriate name for this tour.

terrapin, now a 5 piece, threw out a quick set of their ever-improving rock and tonight some quieter and poppier moments – very nice and jj liked them a lot.

anticipation mounted and temperatures rose as limited express took the stage and once again amazed a reasonable-sized crowd – i don’t know how they do it but they seem to be getting better each show, jj’s stage theatrics playing a bigger part tonight with yukari bouncing around as usual and eventually, during tiger rock, into the audience and with jj breaking a string yet again – that was it, to much rapturous applause and the sale of many CDs.

big thanks must go out to all the bands, especially those prepared to lend equipment and to toby who did the sound for the cost of two beers. good day? it was a fucking great day!

koji “this show had a great sound and was easy to play”

jj “i loved terrapin – i was excited”

yukari “i couldn’t see the audience faces because of the lights but i could feel their vibrations – so nice”

Fuck, that was cool! – 20th November 2004

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fbi interview with nick findlay

had to stir the band at 9am otherwise, they would’ve slept all day. after some pumpkin gnocchi breakfast koji and i played some soccer at the park while the others got ready. packed the car, dropped off the gear at the bowlers club, made a quick appearance at paint it black record store in newtown. the band are all keen to hear new australian music.

had a successful interview at fbi despite all our nerves and excitement. much kudos to nick who was very professional despite a crushed vertebrae. another quick look around red eye records and it was off to lunch and an interview for japanese newpaper info-m. the band is tired so we head up to the bowlers club where they all fall asleep on chairs as the sound guys work around them.


bowlers club with la huva, love of diagrams, youth group

just got the soundchecks finished in time – the sound guys aren’t too sure what to make of limited express (has gone?) but i know what’s coming. many introductions and friends were made with the other bands and with about 50 curious people through the door yukari, koji and jj ripped the place apart with their huge grins and bouncy theatrics.

must say many thanks to tim from la huva for coming to the rescue when jj broke a string and tim loaned his guitar for the final two songs.

so 30 minutes after the start of the samurai-koala show and there seemed to be 50 new fans all eager to talk to the band and purchase cds. yukari slept through some of la huva’s set – they were certainly different after limited express (has gone?) but had some really nice pop songs that everyone enjoyed. can’t stress enough – la huva are cool people.

had to pack up a lot of stuff and only managed to catch a few songs of love of diagrams whose music is as good as ever. we hope we can catch youth group another day.

koji “i was a little nervous because it was the first show but i enjoyed it very much”

jj “yeah – i was very nervous – we hadn’t played a show for one month until now. i was happy many people enjoyed our show”
yukari “i was so glad to see everyone’s smiling face”


maggotville show with pure evil trio and many other dj’s and bands

wow – now this place is cool – a warehouse location with a great diy feel, drunk punks and dogs running around and all. after grooving to misanthrope everyone got setup and the room started to fill – it was party time. champagne was served and the audience popped poppers (among other things i’m sure) and the balloons started flying.

with a much more intimate environment the bands grins were reflected right back at them and it was a joyous occasion for all. jj jumped straight on to the speakers and urged the audience on and surely, halfway through some drunk punks decided to join in during stop-go and even picking up the bass during tiger rock (and doing quite well at that!).

again many friends and fans were made. we all hung around to check out pure evil which all the band enjoyed for various reasons – yukari scoring a free album after smiling sweetly at pure evil’s bass player.

finally, at 2.15 am, it was time to head back for some food, some ping pong club and maybe even some sleep.

jj “the australian audience has a great reaction – i like the australian underground scene”

koji “i was a little scared of the punk crowd but they were cool”

yukari “when the guy got on stage and picked up my bass i felt it was great to have this kind of interaction and participation”

christine (new fan): “fuck that was cool!”